Logicsmith Exhibition 6: Shipping Pearls

I have not had a contest on my blog in a long, long time. Some of my Wordy Wednesday puzzles in the past have been contests (in fact, the system where you get 1 or 2 stars next to your name on the solvers list is a carryover from the contest format, where you could get 1 or 2 contest entries depending on whether you solved the puzzle before or after the easy version went up). However, since I created my Patreon, where people who pledge $3 or more per month get an early look at my Wordy Wednesday puzzles, it doesn't feel right to basically give an advantage to people who pay to see my puzzles earlier. The solution? This contest doesn't involve word puzzles! In fact, it involves logic puzzles, also known as those things this blog used to be focused on before I jumped the shark. However, I won't be writing the puzzles; that is your job.

You are to write a valid Masyu puzzle on a 10x10 grid. The puzzle must have exactly one valid solution. In this solution, there must be exactly 20 cells which are not entered by the loop; within those unused cells, it must be possible to fit a standard Battleships fleet (one ship of length 4, two of length 3, three of length 2, four of length 1) in accordance with the standard Battleships rules.

IMPORTANT: You are not writing a Masyu Battleships puzzle. The puzzle must be solvable as a normal Masyu puzzle, without knowledge that the unused cells will form a Battleships solution.

Count the number of black circles and the number of white circles in your puzzle. Let M be the number of occurrences of the more frequent color, and L be the number of occurrences of the less frequent color. (M and L will be equal if there is an equal number of black circles and white circles.) Your goal is to minimize the value 100M+L. (For example, if your puzzle has 8 black circles and 14 white circles, your score is 1408.)

Submit your puzzle to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next 4 weeks (before December 18, 2016). You may enter multiple times; only your lowest score counts. Whoever submits a valid puzzle with the lowest score wins. I will feature the lowest-scoring valid entry from every entrant on this blog, so even if you don't win, your puzzle-writing abilities will be showcased on my blog. Ties will be broken by random.org.

The winner will receive a copy of an upcoming Grandmaster Puzzles e-book featuring my puzzles, which is scheduled to be released some time before the end of the year. If, for some unforeseen reason, the e-book isn't released by then, the winner will be offered a replacement prize.

Support me on Patreon!

If you enjoy my weekly word puzzles, please consider supporting me monthly on Patreon. You'll get sneak peeks at this blog's puzzles, and exclusive puzzles just for patrons. You can support for whatever amount per month fits your budget. Thank you!

Who's the author?

Grant Fikes has been writing logic puzzles in an amateur capacity since 2005, and in a professional capacity since 2013. He serves as the second-most prolific contributor to the blog on Grandmaster Puzzles, behind only Thomas Snyder; his works have also appeared in Akil Oyunlari, in Sudoku Xtra, the United States Puzzle Competition (2012-2014), and in a smartphone app. Grant has also created Kakuro puzzles for Kakuro Conquest (the puzzles haven't appeared yet, for whatever reason). As a budding word puzzle constructor, Grant's puzzles have appeared in the short-lived Will Shortz's Wordplay, in GAMES World of Puzzles, and in the smartphone app Bonza, and his creation Pent Words has won an award from Kadon Enterprises; as an occasional board gamer, his game Battle of LITS has been published by nestorgames and Lyris Laser Studios and is playable on BoardGameArena. On the Internet, Grant has adopted the persona of a purple and cyan fox/badger hybrid.

PLEASE DO:* commission me! I make good puzzles!* become my patron on Patreon! You'll get early access to my word puzzles!* print these puzzles out to solve them on paper* copy and paste these puzzles into your preferred image editor, and solve them there* e-mail me (glmathgrant@gmail.com; I can nudge you towards a solution if you're stuck, or interact with you in other ways)* post non-spoiler comments directly on the blog (i.e., "I like what you did with the 3's", "The logic in the upper left corner was astounding")* share these puzzles with friends and link to this blog

PLEASE DON'T:* spoil the solution in the comments section for all others to see* post completely irrelevant comments (including comments consisting completely of punctuation)* claim these puzzles as your own* make money off of these puzzles without my permission

What's that font?

Since Wordy Wednesday 72, all puzzles on this blog use the royalty-free Tinos font. Hooray for free stuff!

Who made those images?

The purple and cyan mascot on this page is my fox/badger fursona Grant Badger Fox. The blog's banner was made by PunkJax, the image of Grant holding a tip jar was made by Marquis2007, and the "Certified Puzzlemaster" badge was made by Mary Mouse.